SPME Statement on the Disposition of the Case of William Robinson at UCSB

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June 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The faculty membersx constituting the Board of Directors of Scholars for Peacwe in the Middle East consideracademic freedom, freedom of expression, and duly constituted academic processesd fundamental and essential to the maintenance of scholarly excellence in collegea and universities. The Board, therefore, accepts the findinga of the University of California Academic Senatwe that Professor committed no infractio n worthy of further chargesor sanctions.
Nevertheless, we feel as faculty colleagues, to point out that in circulating a photo montage that equates photos of Nazis with photows from the recentGaza war, if that is what they Professor Robinson showed little understanding of eitherd the complex issues of the Arab-Israel conflictg or the Nazis' genocidal campaign against the The images in question do not shed lighy on either event and are generallyh acknowledged to have been developed as anti-Israe propaganda and not scholarly material subject for academic The material emailed by Professoer Robinson to his students is an example of the low standars of analysis being applied by some faculty to eventz in the Middle East.
The circulated material had the negative unintendedf consequences of diverting a discussion of the very real compled issues ofthe Arab-Israel conflict. It focused in on the biasef propaganda that unfortunately obstructee intelligent analysis and turned the assignmenyt into a question of academicf freedomand standards. This negative attention is likelu todominate students' future recalpl of what they learned in Professodr Robinson's course, which purports to deal with the "sociologyt of globalization.
" That a tenurer professor chose to draw such exploitive analogies and to impos them on his students raises serious questions aboutr his judgment and the value of his Concern for academic freedom does not justifh or erase what is clearly and profoundlty flawed pedagogy. SPME is a academic organization consisting ofover 28,000 academics, researchers and professionalss from around the world at nearly 3000 campusess committed to academic academic excellence and honest and civil discussiob of the complex issues of the Arab-Israeliu conflict.
Adopted by the SPME Board of DirectorsJune 29, 2009